SYRACUSE  —  The State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University completed surgery on a high-rise in Syracuse, converting it from the vacant Townsend Tower into a residence hall it now calls Geneva Tower.

The building, which officially opened Aug. 2 at 500 Harrison St., now holds 139 apartments in one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and four-bedroom configurations. It stands at 137,000 square feet and contains a total of 276 beds.

“We had a real need for new housing,” says Dr. David Duggan, interim dean of SUNY Upstate’s College of Medicine. “It provides our students with an appropriate place to live. It also will provide an option for many of our physicians in training, our residents, and fellows. They are all looking for accommodations that are close to the hospital.”

The revamped structure, located a few blocks from Upstate University Hospital, is available in time for residents to move in for the fall semester, Duggan adds. Rooms are furnished and include air conditioning, wireless Internet access, and dishwashers.

Geneva Tower will generate about $800,000 in proceeds each year, Duggan estimates. That funding will help pay for academic programs, he adds.

SUNY Upstate spent about $28 million renovating the tower. Work started in November 2010. Syracuse–based Hueber-Breuer Construction Co., Inc. was the construction manager, and Architecteam of Syracuse, the successor firm to Schleicher-Soper Architects, was the architect.

M&T Bank arranged financing for the project in the form of bonds from the Onondaga Civic Development Corp. Proceeds from the bonds went to Upstate Properties Development Inc., which is a not-for-profit development corporation that SUNY Upstate created in 2007. Upstate Properties Development Inc. owns the residence hall, having acquired it from the Empire State Development Corp. in 2010.

Total overhaul

Turning the building into a residence hall was no small operation, according to Thomas Pelis, SUNY Upstate’s assistant vice president for facilities and planning.

“Virtually everything is changed,” he says. “The floor plans have been totally changed within the confines of the building itself. We added an elevator tower and lobby on the north side of the building, because the existing elevators did not meet current [Americans with Disabilities Act] regulations. And then we added a two-story addition on the south side of the building to provide a more inviting entrance and to create some open space for students.”

Crews also enclosed the building’s balconies to give it more interior space. And they placed panels on the outside of the facility that change color as they reflect sunlight at different angles. The panels reflect colors ranging from pink to green and give the building’s exterior a visually interesting element, according to Pelis.

SUNY Upstate believes the residence hall will qualify for the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver certification. Pelis thinks it may actually prove to meet higher standards for gold certification.

The building has several environmentally friendly design elements, from energy-efficient curtain walls to a sophisticated heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system, Pelis says. All of its outside lights are low-energy light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, and it was designed in conjunction with Onondaga County’s Save the Rain initiative to keep storm water from entering the sewer
system.

Additionally, the residence hall has some features tailored to medical students, Pelis continues. It contains conference rooms designed for group study, and designers made some other decisions catering to their target residents.

“We recognize that students are going to be sleeping during the day because they’re working at night, so we have sun-blocking shades,” Pelis says. “Students were very involved in the selection of the desk chairs and the feel of the furniture, because they’re spending a lot of time studying.”

Now that Geneva Tower is complete, SUNY Upstate is turning its focus on the building’s nearby twin. That facility, called Harrison House, was also acquired by Upstate Properties Development Inc. in 2010. However, it has yet to be renovated, Pelis says.

SUNY Upstate would like to redo Harrison House in a similar fashion to Geneva Tower, he says. But inflation will probably push that building’s renovation costs close to $30 million, he adds. 

Financing is not yet in place to perform work on the second building, but SUNY Upstate hopes to once again use bonds from the Onondaga Civic Development Corp. 

“We are waiting to get financing, but we’re also waiting to confirm that the student demand is there,” Pelis says. “We found that the one-bedroom units are very popular, so we need to put more one-bedroom units in the Harrison House.”

SUNY Upstate hopes to start work on Harrison House by the end of this year. It is aiming to have the tower renovated for the fall semester of 2015.